Around here doctors just leave practice and disappear -- it is nearly impossible to get any records from anyone. Nevertheless, there doesn't seem to be any consequence, regardless of what the law says.
Hospitals don't seem to be much better. Try to get surgical operative summaries or image reports from 5-10 years ago -- good luck. Usually "not available".
So I guess I won't worry too much about that!
One of the 3 clinicians in the office retired last Dec 31 -- we had given a six month notice that he was retiring 12/31/21, and that the entire practice was closing 12/31/22, with a deliberate shrinking through the whole of this year. People are slowly getting the idea, but it is amazing how after multiple communications in multiple channels, they still seem surprised.
Of course, the problem is that the hospital clinics, which are now almost the only game in town, are not capable of taking over our practice entirely. Many of the patients are "too complicated" or have problems like chronic pain and chronic insomnia and chronic anxiety that they simply refuse to address. I'm sure it will all sort out eventually -- but it seems like medical practice has taken a huge step backwards since it has been industrialized and forced into hospital-based clinics.
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